The Chinese are preparing for a strong travel wave during the “Golden Week” holiday on the occasion of National Day, with their tendency to take longer trips and more distant foreign destinations, but the expected increase in the number of travelers does not necessarily mean a similar recovery in spending, in light of the continued weakness of consumer confidence, deflationary pressures, and the real estate market crisis. The seven-day National Day holiday begins on October 1, but this year it comes after the Mid-Autumn Festival, which fell on September 25, allowing some travelers to combine the two holidays into a vacation of up to 13 days. “Golden Week” usually represents an important indicator of the strength of consumption in the second largest economy in the world. But this year's holiday comes at a time when domestic demand is weak and a years-long real estate crisis continues to impact homeowners, renters and investors.
Last year's experience showed the gap between increased travel and spending power. Despite the increase in the number of trips during the National Day holiday, the average spending per trip reached 911.04 yuan (about 135.7 dollars), the lowest level in three years. Elsa Liao, senior analyst at Fortrait Securities, said that consumers still have a strong appetite for travel, but they are cautious about the amount of spending, noting that the result is a spending pattern in the shape of the Latin letter “K”, as the number of travelers could rise while per capita spending remains under pressure. Beijing is trying to take advantage of the travel season to stimulate demand. On September 22, the government launched a month-long campaign called “National Day Cultural and Tourism Consumption Month,” coinciding with a 16-day peak period for train transportation, during which the Chinese Railways Corporation added high-speed train services and night trips. Reservations indicate that foreign travel will be one of the most prominent features of the season. The Spring Tour company in Shanghai said that trips that include more than one country have achieved great demand, and that travel sales abroad have grown at a faster pace than last year as tourists prepare to travel longer distances. By mid-August, long-haul flight programs to Spain, Portugal, the Balkan countries, northern Europe, Greece and New Zealand were completely sold out, and flights to Central Asia, the Caucasus and Australia were sold out early.
A survey conducted by Dragon Trail International in August confirmed the strength of foreign demand, with 54 percent of respondents saying they plan to travel abroad during the holiday, compared to 35 percent a year ago. But price sensitivity remains clear. Sienna Parolis-Cook, the company's marketing and communications director, said travelers are becoming more interested in getting the best value for money. The survey showed that only 5 percent planned to stay in luxury hotels, while mid-range hotels were the most popular choice at 33 percent.
Trip.com data reveals the same trend toward longer vacations. More than half of foreign flight bookings during the holiday period were to leave China before October 1, and the average flight duration exceeded nine days. Hotel bookings for at least seven nights jumped 123 percent compared to last Golden Week, and trips that include multiple destinations rose 84 percent.
Although the holiday extension may push traveler numbers to record levels, analysts do not yet see evidence of a structural rise in daily spending. Liao pointed out that per capita tourism spending decreased during the National Day holiday in 2025, as well as during the Spring Festival in 2026. This equation puts the tourism sector in front of a busy, but not necessarily more profitable, season. The Chinese consumer is not giving up travel, but he has become more selective in how he spends his money, which makes strong tourism traffic numbers an insufficient indicator alone to judge the recovery of domestic consumption.
Carsten Spohr, CEO of Lufthansa, said that the additional bill for aviation fuel that the company will bear this year will exceed the 1.5 billion euros ($1.70 billion) mark that it had announced in August - in light of the continuing tensions related to Iran and the rise in oil prices.
The German group is the latest to join the list of airlines - including Ryanair - that warn of the repercussions of the continued rise in aviation fuel costs on this sector, as the cost of fuel constitutes between 30 and 40 percent of the total expenses of airlines.
Spohr told reporters during a media event in Frankfurt on Monday evening: “The amount of 1.5 billion euros that I mentioned a few months ago as the additional fuel burden... the number that we will most likely have to announce at the end of the year will be higher than that.”
Spohr did not specify the size of the new additional fuel cost burden that the company expects.
The company announced in August that it expects total fuel costs for 2026 to reach about 8.66 billion euros - a figure that includes the additional burden of 1.5 billion euros - compared to previous expectations that indicated 8.9 billion euros, and it also warned that profits may be affected by this.
Lufthansa has succeeded in protecting itself to some extent from fluctuations in aviation fuel prices through extensive price risk hedging operations. The group's fuel hedging ratio was 86 percent for 2026, and just over 50 percent for 2027, Till Streichert, the group's chief financial officer, told analysts in August.
Despite the expected increase in fuel costs, Spohr reiterated the company's expectations of achieving operating profits ranging between 1.7 billion and 2.2 billion euros, compared to 2 billion euros in the previous year. He added that the company's ambitious transformation program - which aims to achieve an operating margin of between 8 and 10 percent by the period between 2028 and 2030 - has been affected by the increasing costs facing the sector.
Spohr said: “Financial performance has not yet led to the desired results this year, due to the obstacles related to fuel costs that everyone had to deal with.”
Despite these challenges, Spohr pointed out that there is a boom in bookings for premium economy and business class cabins, which reflects a similar trend observed by competing companies such as Air France-KLM and IAG, which owns British Airways.
On Tuesday, Britain issued record 10-year government bonds with the highest yield for bonds of this duration since 1999, at a time when borrowing costs are witnessing a global rise that is placing great pressure on British public finances.
The British Debt Management Office said that it sold 10-year Treasury bonds worth 4.25 billion pounds ($5.62 billion), with an average return of 5.383 percent, which is the highest return rate recorded by any bond auction of this period since September 1999, when 10-year debt was sold with a return of 5.694 percent, according to Reuters.
Investors placed purchase orders equivalent to 3.34 times the size of the bonds on offer, in line with the relatively strong demand for British bonds at auctions this year.
On Monday, the 10-year British bond yield in the secondary market reached its highest level since July 2007 at 5.441 percent. But no new 10-year bonds were offered when yields reached those levels, making Tuesday's auction result the highest yield for bonds of that duration since September 1999.
Earlier this month, Britain borrowed at its highest cost since 1998 when it sold 30-year bonds worth £4.25 billion. However, Britain currently relies to a much greater extent on issuing debt with maturities approaching 10 years, which may make the outcome of Tuesday’s auction more important for public finances.
The rise in inflation and interest rates at central banks after the outbreak of war with Iran, along with the rise in government borrowing in the United States, Germany and France, led investors in bond markets globally to demand higher returns.
British Finance Minister John Healey said at the annual conference of the ruling Labor Party on Monday that financial discipline will be the focus of his first annual budget statement next month.
But the government is having difficulty reining in the continuing rise in the costs of state pensions and other social welfare spending, and has committed not to increase headline tax rates.
New Prime Minister Andy Brenham also wants to increase spending on defense and social care, and faces pressure in the near term to provide support for households' energy bills.
